He's
held media events at private homes to demonstrate the benefits of the bill to
homeowners.

And
he's done the same thing at a Springfield company that's expected to do more business if the
proposal becomes law.

(Welch) "There's a real Vermont impact right
away. We've got, for instance, Jeld-Wen, which is a company that manufactures
energy-efficient doors and windows, and they're going to be able to put more
people to work."

(Sneyd)
The central goal of the bill is to encourage homeowners to replace old insulation,
windows and anything else that might be leaking energy.

Homeowners
could get rebates of up to $3,000 for those kinds of renovations. Another
provision would allow them to qualify for as much as $8,000 if they can show
they'd save at least 20 percent on their energy use.

Welch
says the bill would save consumers money on their energy bills while reducing
pollution. And ...

(Welch) "It's going to put our
out-of-work construction folks back to work. We've got 25 percent unemployment
and these are the folks who do the retrofitting and they're going to have work.
And it'll create about 170,000 jobs."

(Sneyd)
The bill would cost the federal government about $6 billion over two years.
Welch says he wants the money to come from uncommitted stimulus funds.

A
similar bill is pending in the Senate and Welch says he's optimistic that a
final version will emerge from Congress soon.